


last days of rain

by Rethira



Category: Dishonored (Video Game)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-05-13
Updated: 2014-05-13
Packaged: 2018-01-24 14:53:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 379
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1609148
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rethira/pseuds/Rethira
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The rain keeps on falling.</p>
            </blockquote>





	last days of rain

On the day they haul the last whale from the ocean, it rains in Dunwall.

 

The only whale oil left is used to light and heat the Tower. Emily doesn’t smile – after a while she tells them to open the gates. Encourage the evacuation. She won’t leave, that much is certain. A captain goes down with his ship, and an Empress goes down with her empire.

Corvo doesn’t leave either, but no-one ever expected him to.

 

The carcass hangs rotting in the slaughterhouse. Emily asks Corvo to take her there, and they go down together, past all the empty houses and abandoned shops. The slaughterhouse is deserted but for rats and flies. There are bones and blood on the floor, and hanging from the ceiling is the whale.

Rats run down the chains holding it up. Flies have nested in its eyes. Huge chunks of flesh have rotted away, though parts of the corpse still bear the marks of the butchers’ blades. The smell is indescribable.

“Do you think he suffered?” Emily asks.

“Yes,” Corvo answers truthfully.

 

The rain splashes whale oil blue where it lands.

If Corvo was a poetic soul, he might suggest the Void was crying.

 

He doesn’t bother with gloves anymore. There’s only Emily to see his hands, and she’s seen the mark before.

It’s faded now, bone white, and Corvo’s powers with it.

 

In the day, Corvo takes Emily exploring. They go down to the Flooded District and he points out where the Whalers were. They find the body of an Overseer, although the rats have long since picked it clean. The mask is cracked and filthy, and Emily says, “I’ll put it on the mantelpiece.”

 

The Abbey of the Everyman is empty.

 

The rats are leaving. Corvo and Emily sit on a rooftop, drinking whiskey and laughing. The rats scurry past, heading for the gates. If Emily wonders why, she doesn’t ask.

Later she says, “I always wanted to try a cigar,” and then coughs when he gives her one. Through her coughing she says, “Corvo, did you want to meet later, for whiskey and cigars?”

They laugh until the sun sets.

 

Corvo sent Samuel away. He’s glad about it.

 

In the slaughterhouse, the last whale falls. Outside, the rain keeps on falling.

**Author's Note:**

> [bonus text](http://kratosaurioned.tumblr.com/post/85627060100/more-the-last-whale-was-the-outsider)


End file.
